Nature and her animals are ruled by seasons and rhythms – there is a season for growth, rain and lush green bush, a season of plenty and well-fed stomachs, a season for cold, leaves dropping, dry waterholes and ebbing populations. Although we are not as connected to nature’s seasons, December certainly brings about season of reflection for most people – a time to rest and review on the year that was.
2018 has been a wonderful year for The Hide on many fronts – with amazing wildlife sightings, new renovations and updates at our camp and being able to exhibit at some outstanding travel shows during the year.
Lions, lions and more lions!
With 360-degree views and the waterhole nearby, The Private Hide merges into the beautiful Hwange vista. This year The Private Hide received a brand new swimming pool and deck. These additions have been very well received by guests…and had notable interest shown by our local lions too! An absolutely incredible moment captured by our safari camp manager, Nick Ruddy on the 21st of November when a small pride of lions came to view the updated designs. Cecil’s two young males with two females and five cubs all peacefully left when Mopane and Sedulli came in to mark their territory.
With so many beautiful lion pictures to choose from, its hard to pick a favourite… but we do love this one of our sort of traffic-jam!
Our most popular video this year on Facebook goes to this amazing clip of a male lion calling that was taken by one of our talented guide, Nkosi – turn up the sound, close your eyes and you will be transported back onto the plains of Hwange…
A season for rejuvenation
We took our cue from nature this year, and during the green season at the beginning of the year, we underwent a major update at The Hide. Our main A frame which houses our dining area, bar, swimming pool, viewing deck and mini-museum, was modernised by opening up the sides of the thatching and extending the wooden deck to maximize the beautiful view of our waterhole and vlei line. We have maintained the wonderfully warm and homely feel that The Hide has always had, and still kept the seamless integration with the landscape.
Travel round up
We are Africa in Cape Town is one of the premiere travel shows, and The Hide was delighted that Zimbabwe was chosen to be the focus of the show this year. The theme was Rise – The Rebirth of Zimbabwe – and we do feel that we are at a beginning of a new season for Zimbabwe. We have had a lot of well-deserved travel attention this year and was recently voted Top 3 destinations to visit in the world by Lonely Planet. Take a watch of this video which does an excellent job of capturing all that is on offer…
The Hide Community Trust
The Hide Safari Camp is now a proud member of The Long Run, one of the world’s large business-led sustainable development initiatives. We are guided by the 4 C’s principles which focus on – Conservation, Community, Culture and Commerce, and we use these as a force for good and are part of our guiding principles.
The Hide Community Trust is our non-profit organisation established in 2015, working alongside The Hide Safari Camp for almost three years in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. The core ethos of the Trust is that effective and long-term conservation must work in harmony with simultaneous sustainable community development. Our aim is to establish sustainable programs of education, food security, income generation and conservation.
We have many ongoing projects but our latest one which we are very proud to be a part of is our glass bottle recycling project. We have recently learnt how to build a kiln out of termite mounds (how innovative is that!) and using our glass bottles from camp, we turn them into beads to make jewellery. These are now being sold to our guests in camp and all proceeds go back into the Trust.
All that is left to say is from our family at The Hide Safari Camp, we would like to wish you and your family a very happy festive season and we hope our paths cross in 2019.
